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''Féerie'' (), sometimes translated as "fairy play", was a French theatrical genre known for
fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...
plots and spectacular visuals, including lavish scenery and mechanically worked stage effects. ''Féeries'' blended music, dancing, pantomime, and acrobatics, as well as magical transformations created by designers and stage technicians, to tell stories with clearly defined
melodrama A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...
-like
morality Morality () is the categorization of intentions, Decision-making, decisions and Social actions, actions into those that are ''proper'', or ''right'', and those that are ''improper'', or ''wrong''. Morality can be a body of standards or principle ...
and an extensive use of
supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...
elements. The genre developed in the early 19th century and became immensely popular in France throughout the nineteenth century, influencing the development of
burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.
,
musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...
and
film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...
.


Style

''Féeries'' used a fairy-tale aesthetic to combine theatre with music, dances, mime, acrobatics, and especially spectacular visual effects created by innovative stage machinery, such as
trap door A trapdoor or hatch is a sliding or hinged door that is flush with the surface of a floor, ceiling, or roof. It is traditionally small in size. It was invented to facilitate the hoisting of grain up through mills, however, its list of uses has ...
s,
smoke machine A fog machine, fog generator, or smoke machine is a device that emits a dense vapor that appears similar to fog or smoke. This artificial fog is most commonly used in professional entertainment applications, but smaller, more affordable fog mach ...
s, and quickly changeable sets. Songs always appeared, usually featuring new lyrics to familiar melodies. Transformation scenes, in which a scene would change as if by magic in full view of the audience, were an important component of the style; until 1830, nearly all scene changes in ''féeries'' were full-view transformations. The last transformation in a ''féerie'', accompanied by a flourish of music, led to the
apotheosis Apotheosis (, ), also called divinization or deification (), is the glorification of a subject to divine levels and, commonly, the treatment of a human being, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity. The origina ...
: a grand final stage picture, usually involving beautiful supernumeraries descending from the sky or suspended on wires. These elements, especially the spectacle and stage effects, were far more prominent than the plot. The critic
Francisque Sarcey Francisque Sarcey (8 October 1827 – 16 May 1899) was a French journalist and dramatic critic. Career Sarcey was born in Dourdan, Essonne. After some years as schoolmaster, a job for which his temperament was ill-fitted, he entered journal ...
suggested that for a ''féerie'', the crew in charge of design and stagecraft should be regarded as more important than the writers, noting that the scripts themselves were so incoherent that "one can put the beginning at the end, and vice versa."
Théophile Gautier Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic. While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rema ...
even suggested, with considerable irony, that the immensely successful féerie ''Les Pilules du diable'' could be performed as a purely
mime A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek language, Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a the ...
d production, so that no spoken words would distract the audience from the spectacle they had come to enjoy. The total effect was one of a dazzling, dreamlike array of visuals, harkening back to fairy-tale traditions and a childlike sense of wonder through the use of innovative stage technology. In a review of '' The Blue Bird'', a writer in the ''
Journal des débats The ''Journal des débats'' (, ''Journal of Debates'') was a French newspaper, published between 1789 and 1944 that changed title several times. Created shortly after the first meeting of the Estates-General of 1789, it was, after the outbreak ...
'' commented satirically on the spectacular frivolity of a typical ''féerie'', but positively on the genre's vast potential for creativity: The plots of ''féeries'' were usually borrowed from fairy tales in the French tradition, such as those by
Charles Perrault Charles Perrault ( , , ; 12 January 162816 May 1703) was a French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales, published in his ...
and
Madame d'Aulnoy Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy (September 1652 – 14 January 1705), also known as Countess d'Aulnoy, was a French author known for her literary fairy tales. Her 1697 collection ''Les Contes des Fées'' (Fairy Tales) ...
; other ''féeries'' borrowed from outside sources such as the ''
One Thousand and One Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition ( ...
'', or created original plots. Like melodramas, the form ''féeries'' involved a stirring battle between forces of good and evil. However, where melodrama merely suggested the existence of these extremes, ''féeries'' made them unabashedly literal by embodying them as witches, gnomes, and other supernatural creatures. The clear moral tone was heightened by the dialogue, which often included maxims about love, duty, virtue, and similar topics. A full-length ''féerie'' often ran for several hours. Four human characters reliably appeared among the supernatural forces: two young lovers (an ingenue and her heroic suitor), an often comical and grotesque rival for the affections of the ingenue, and a lazy
valet A valet or varlet is a male servant who serves as personal attendant to his employer. In the Middle Ages and Ancien Régime, ''valet de chambre'' was a role for junior courtiers and specialists such as artists in a royal court, but the term "va ...
obsessed with eating. The supernatural forces in the plot drove these characters through fantastic landscapes and multiple adventures, typically involving magic
talisman A talisman is any object ascribed with religious or magical powers intended to protect, heal, or harm individuals for whom they are made. Talismans are often portable objects carried on someone in a variety of ways, but can also be installed perm ...
s used to transform people, things, and places. The apotheosis reunited the lovers to dazzling effect.


Origins

The ''féerie'' can trace its origins to the ''
ballet de cour ''Ballet de cour'' ("court ballet") is the name given to ballets performed in the 16th and 17th centuries at courts. The court ballet was a gathering of noblemen and women, as the cast and audience were largely supplied by the ruling class. The fe ...
'' ("court ballet") tradition of the
Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
, in which such court leaders as
Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici (, ; , ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Italian Republic of Florence, Florentine noblewoman of the Medici family and Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to Henry II of France, King Henry II. Sh ...
and
Henry IV of France Henry IV (; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry (''le Bon Roi Henri'') or Henry the Great (''Henri le Grand''), was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 16 ...
would commission spectacularly designed ballets based on mythological subjects and fables. Another notable precursor is the ''pièces à machines'' ("plays with machines") genre, popular at the
Théâtre du Marais The Théâtre du Marais () has been the name of several theatres and theatrical troupes in Paris, France. The original and most famous theatre of the name operated in the 17th century. The name was briefly revived for a revolutionary theatre in 1 ...
in the mid 17th-century, again using mythology as source material;
Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...
's ''
Psyché Psyche (''Psyché'' in French) is the Greek term for "soul" ( ψυχή). Psyche or La Psyché may also refer to: Psychology * Psyche (psychology), the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious * ''Psyche'', an 1846 book about the unc ...
'' is a notable small-scale example, and
Corneille Pierre Corneille (; ; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great 17th-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronage o ...
's ''
Andromède ''Andromède'' (''Andromeda'') is a French verse play in a prologue and five acts by Pierre Corneille, first performed on 1 February 1650 by the Troupe Royale de l'Hôtel de Bourgogne at the Théâtre Royal de Bourbon in Paris. The story is t ...
'' and ''La Toison d'or'' also count within the genre. These genres owed much to the theatrical engineering work of Italian architects, especially Nicola Sabbatini. These spectacles paved the way for 18th-century fairground pantomimes (''
théâtre de la foire Théâtre de la foire () is the collective name given to the theatre put on at the annual fairs at Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Saint-Germain and Saint-Laurent church, Paris, Saint-Laurent (and for a time, at Saint-Ovide) in Paris. Foire Sain ...
''), such as ''Arlequin dans un oeuf'' at the
Théâtre des Jeunes-Artistes The Théâtre des Jeunes-Artistes was an 18th-century Parisian entertainment venue, now defunct, inaugurated in 1790 at 52 rue de Bondy (modern rue René-Boulanger) in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. It had a capacity of 520 spectators.Wild 1 ...
, or ''Les Eaux de Merlin'' by
Alain-René Lesage Alain-René Lesage (; 6 May 166817 November 1747; older spelling Le Sage) was a French novelist and playwright. Lesage is best known for his comic novel '' The Devil upon Two Sticks'' (1707, ''Le Diable boiteux''), his comedy '' Turcaret'' (170 ...
. The fairground pantomimes, by combining motifs from the
Commedia dell'Arte Commedia dell'arte was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Theatre of Italy, Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is a ...
with lavish fantasy created by theatrical spectacle, served as the most direct precursor of the 19th-century ''féerie''. The French Revolution changed the face of French theatre, with a large new audience to please: the
bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...
. Various genres developed to please bourgeois tastes. The ''féerie'', combining the fairground influences with the farcical style of '' comédie en vaudeville'', began as a form of
melodrama A melodrama is a Drama, dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on ...
, but the gap between them quickly became highly pronounced. For the nineteenth century audience, the two genres stood at opposite ends of a spectrum: at one end was melodrama, with its plots calculated to make audiences weep; ''féerie'' filled a place at the other extreme, providing entertainment designed to make audiences laugh. Notable early attempts toward the genre were Cuvelier de Trie's adaptations of ''
Tom Thumb Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. ''The History of Tom Thumb'' was published in 1621 and was the first known fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, ...
'' and '' Puss-in-Boots'', in 1801 and 1802, respectively. The development of the ''féerie'' was helped along by a growing French interest in the literary qualities of classic fairy tales, and by the popularity of the ''One Thousand and One Nights'' after its first publication in France.


Early successes

The ''féerie'' in the full 19th-century sense of the word was born on 6 December 1806, with the premiere at the Théâtre de la Gaîté of ''Le Pied de mouton'' ("The Mutton Foot"). The play, written by Alphonse Martainville in collaboration with the actor César Ribié, follows the quest of a lovesick hero, Guzman, to save his lover Leonora from the hands of a villainous rival. With the help of a magic talisman (the mutton foot of the title) and under the watch of a fairy who espouses the value of virtue and duty, Guzman braves his way through a series of spectacular trials, spiced with music, ballet, and duels. Thanks to stage machinery, magical events flow freely through the play: portraits move, people fly, chaperones transform into guitarists, food disappears. In the end, love conquers all, and the fairy intervenes once more to ensure the triumph of good over evil. ''Le Pied de mouton'' was widely successful and frequently revived. It codified the standard form of ''féeries'' for the next hundred years: a narrative in which the
hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...
or heroes undergo a series of adventures through spectacular scenes, with the sets often "magically" transforming in view of the audience. Scholars continue to cite it as a quintessential example of the genre. The ''féerie'', once established, quickly flourished; between 1800 and 1820 alone, some sixty ''féeries'' were produced. An 1826 "''mélodrame féerie''" at the Porte Saint-Martin, ''Le Monstre et le magicien'', struck new ground not only thematically—it had a Gothic edge and was based on
Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ( , ; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of science fiction# ...
's ''
Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 Gothic novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a Sapience, sapient Frankenstein's monster, crea ...
''—but also literally: an English designer, Tomkins, was brought in to install a complex new system of trapdoors in the stage floor. While the trap doors became a staple for ''féerie'' effects, the fashion for Gothic fiction onstage subsided by the 1830s. One of
Guilbert de Pixérécourt Guilbert is a French surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Aimé-Victor-François Guilbert (1812–1889), French cardinal *Ann Morgan Guilbert, American actress * Frédéric Guilbert (born 1994), French soccer player * Nelly Guilbert ...
's most famous works in the genre, ''Ondine'' or ''La Nymphe des Eaux'' (1830), marks the beginning of a popular trend for plots featuring romances between mortals and supernatural beings; it tells the balletic, often aquatic love story of the
water nymph In Greek mythology, the naiads (; ), sometimes also hydriads, are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They are distinct from river gods, who embodied ...
Ondine, who obtains a soul by falling in love with a mortal. Technical advances in stage machinery were quickly woven into new ''féerie'' productions:
gas lighting Gas lighting is the production of artificial light from combustion of a fuel gas such as methane, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, coal gas (town gas) or natural gas. The light is produced either directly by ...
, installed in most major Paris theaters by the late 1830s, allowed for more realistic set designs and various atmospheric effects, with
limelight Limelight (also known as Drummond light or calcium light)James R. Smith (2004). ''San Francisco's Lost Landmarks'', Quill Driver Books. is a non-electric type of stage lighting that was once used in theatres and music halls. An intense illum ...
becoming especially useful to simulate sunbeams and moonbeams. Similarly,
Louis Daguerre Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre ( ; ; 18 November 1787 – 10 July 1851) was a France, French scientist, artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the eponymous daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of th ...
's invention of the
diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional model either full-sized or miniature. Sometimes dioramas are enclosed in a glass showcase at a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies like mili ...
—a staged tableau animated and transformed by changes in lighting—widely influenced ''féerie'' transformation effects. The first great hit to match the success of ''Le Pied de mouton'' was the Cirque Olympique's ''Les Pilules du diable'' (1839), from a script by the vaudeville writer
Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois Auguste Anicet, later Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois (25 December 1806 – 12 January 1871) was a French dramatist. He was born in Paris. The first play to bear his name is ''L'Ami et le mari, ou le Nouvel Amphitryon'', a vaudeville piece in one a ...
and two writers for circus productions, Laloue and Laurent. While the stage effects had gotten more spectacular since the initial ''féeries'', the plots remained familiar; in this play, the rich
hidalgo Hidalgo may refer to: People * Hidalgo (nobility), members of the Spanish nobility * Hidalgo (surname) Places Mexico :''Most, if not all, named for Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla (1753–1811)'' * Hidalgo (state), in central Mexico * Hidalgo, Coah ...
Sottinez, madly in love with the ingenue Isabelle, pursues her and her lover Albert through bizarre and spectacular adventures. ''Les Pilules du diable'' was widely revived and imitated, and was possibly the most celebrated ''féerie'' of all. Later successful ''féeries'' included ''La Biche au bois'', ''La Chatte Blanche'', and ''Peau d'Âne'', all of which borrowed heavily from
fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...
s and romances while reframing their stories to suit the tastes of the day. The popular playwright
Adolphe d'Ennery Adolphe d'Ennery (; or Dennery; Adolphe Philippe; 17 June 181125 January 1899) was a French playwright and novelist. Life Born in Paris, his real surname was Philippe. He obtained his first success in collaboration with Charles Desnoyer in ' ...
had a hit at the Gaîté in 1844 with ''Les Sept Châteaux du diable'', a
morality play The morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor drama. The term is used by scholars of literary and dramatic history to refer to a genre of play texts from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries that feature personified concepts ( ...
-like fantasy in which a pair of young couples face temptations in castles representing the
Seven Deadly Sins The seven deadly sins (also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins) function as a grouping of major vices within the teachings of Christianity. In the standard list, the seven deadly sins according to the Catholic Church are pride, greed ...
; among d'Ennery's other ''féerie''s is the similarly moral ''Rothomago'' (1862). Many successful féeries were the work of the prolific Cogniard brothers; their 1843 adaptation of the ''One Thousand and One Nights'', ''Les Mille et une nuits'', introduced
exoticism Exoticism (from ''exotic'') is the style or traits considered characteristic of a distant foreign country. In art and design it is a trend where creators become fascinated with ideas and styles from distant regions and draw inspiration from them. ...
to the genre while preserving its lighthearted vaudevillian dialogue. Other notable Cogniard productions were ''La Chatte blanche'' with the café-concert performer Thérésa, the trick-filled ''La Poudre de Perlinpinpin'', and, in collaboration with the vaudeville writer Clairville, the 1858 Variétés production ''Les Bibelots du diable'', a comic spectacle with winking references and allusions to most of the major ''féeries'' that had gone before it. The comic strain of ''Le Pied de mouton'' and ''Les Pilules du diable'' was emphasized in many of these successes, such as ''Les Sept Châteaux'', ''Perlinpinpin'', and ''Les Bibelots''. Because of the large scale of the spectacle, the biggest and most technically equipped Parisian stages became the most in-demand venues for the shows. The Cirque Olympique, formerly an arena used for political and
equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or riding in British English) Examples of this are: *Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes in ...
spectacles, took advantage of its deep stage to present expensively mounted ''féeries''; it was eventually replaced by a new auditorium built specifically for spectacle, the
Théâtre du Châtelet The Théâtre du Châtelet () is a theatre and opera house, located in the place du Châtelet in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. One of two theatres (the other being the Théâtre de la Ville) built on the site of a ''châtelet'', a ...
. The
Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin The Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin () is a venerable theatre and opera house at 18, Boulevard Saint-Martin in the 10th arrondissement of Paris. History It was first built very rapidly in 1781 under the direction of (1726–1810) to hou ...
, originally designed for opera productions, had a stage and machinery well suited to the demands of the ''féerie'', and flourished with the genre under the direction of Marc Fournier.


Evolution of the term

The term ''féerie'' began as an adjective, used together with more established descriptive terms to advertise a production's genre. Many of the first ''féeries'' were advertised as ''mélodrame-féeries'' ("fairy melodrama"; half of all ''féeries'' presented between 1800 and 1810 were so described), a description which fell out of favor during the 1810s. ''Pantomime-féeries'', developed by the mime Deburau, became highly popular in the 1840s. Other popular descriptors included ''folie-féeries'' and ''comédie-féeries''. '' Opéra-féeries'', with an increased emphasis on music, first flourished in the 1820s, eventually developing into a form of
operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs and including dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, and length of the work. Apart from its shorter length, the oper ...
in such works as
Jacques Offenbach Jacques Offenbach (; 20 June 18195 October 1880) was a German-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s to the 1870s, and his uncompleted opera ''The Tales of Hoffmann''. He was a p ...
's 1874 ''
Le Voyage dans la lune ''A Trip to the Moon'' ( , ) is a 1902 French science-fiction adventure trick film written, directed, and produced by Georges Méliès. Inspired by the Jules Verne novel ''From the Earth to the Moon'' (1865) and its sequel '' Around the Moon' ...
''. Most popular of all were ''vaudeville-féeries'', written by
vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...
playwrights and featuring more songs and jokes than other productions did. This style became so widespread that by the late 1840s, ''vaudeville-féeries'' were known simply as ''féeries'', and their particular tone became the standard across the genre.


International variants

James Robinson Planché James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince James ...
, after seeing a ''féerie'' at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin on his honeymoon in 1821, brought the genre to England as the "fairy
extravaganza An extravaganza is a literary or musical work (often musical theatre) usually containing elements of Victorian burlesque, and pantomime, in a spectacular production and characterized by freedom of style and structure. The term is derived from th ...
." He staged some twenty fairy extravaganzas in London between 1836 and 1854. The nineteenth-century
pantomime Pantomime (; informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment, generally combining gender-crossing actors and topical humour with a story more or less based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or ...
also had strong similarities to the ''féerie'', with one critic for a New Zealand newspaper describing ''Les 400 coups du diable'' as a "fairy play which in everything but in name is very much like our own Christmas pantomime". With its fairy-tale themes, the ''féerie'' can be also compared to later English "fairy plays" such as
J. M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succe ...
's ''
Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical ...
'' or to American fairy-tale extravaganzas such as
L. Frank Baum Lyman Frank Baum (; May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919) was an American author best known for his children's fantasy books, particularly '' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', part of a series. In addition to the 14 ''Oz'' books, Baum penned 41 other novels ...
's musical version of ''
The Wizard of Oz ''The Wizard of Oz'' is a 1939 American Musical film, musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Based on the 1900 novel ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum, it was primarily directed by Victor Fleming, who left pro ...
''. In Spain, the , a genre very similar to the ''féerie'', began a rise to prominence in 1715 with the works of . The form was well-established there by the time adapted ''Le Pied de mouton'' for the Spanish stage in 1829. Grimaldi's version, ''La Pata de Cabra'', was a pronounced popular success and was widely imitated. In Russia, the concept of fairy-tale spectacle merged with
narrative ballet A narrative ballet, also known as classical ballet or story ballet is a form of ballet that has a plot and characters. It is typically a production with full sets and costumes. It was an invention of the eighteenth century. Most romantic and ...
to create the ''ballet-féerie'' ("fairy ballet"). This form took its name from the French genre and its dance characteristics from the Italian ''ballo grande'' style. It was often considered a lower-class, more commercialized entertainment than traditional ballet; many late-nineteenth-century Russian critics attacked it, describing it as a foreign threat to national ballet traditions. Nonetheless, the ''ballet-féerie'' form attracted considerable artistic attention:
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer during the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popula ...
's '' The Sleeping Beauty'' and ''
The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' (, ), Opus number, Op. 71, is an 1892 two-act classical ballet (conceived as a '; ) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, set on Christmas Eve at the foot of a Christmas tree in a child's imagination featuring a Nutcracker doll. Th ...
'' are both ''ballet-féeries''. Like the French ''féerie'', the ''ballet-féerie'' emphasized spectacle and stage effects. Where previous dance stagings had emphasized the technique and solo virtuosity of the
prima ballerina A ballet dancer is a person who practices the art of classical ballet. Both females and males can practice ballet. They rely on years of extensive training and proper technique to become a part of a professional ballet company. Ballet dancers ...
, the new genre put the focus on ensemble dances, magical transformations, and shifting stage pictures created with movement and color.


Popularity

By the mid-nineteenth century, ''féeries'' had become one of the foremost venues for fairy-tale storytelling in popular culture, and had gained the fascination and respect of some of the foremost writers of the day.
Théophile Gautier Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier ( , ; 30 August 1811 – 23 October 1872) was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, and art and literary critic. While an ardent defender of Romanticism, Gautier's work is difficult to classify and rema ...
often reviewed them in his capacity as a writer on the theatre, comparing the shifting scenes and magical occurrences of the ''féerie'' to a dream: The popularity of the ''féerie'' had its first peak in the 1850s; by the end of the decade, around the time of ''Les Bibelots du diable'', the focus had shifted from the fairy-tale plot to extravaganza on its own terms. Siraudin and Delacour's 1856 satire ''La Queue de la poêle'' parodied the conventions of the genre, much as
Frédérick Lemaître Antoine Louis Prosper "Frédérick" Lemaître (; 28 July 1800 – 26 January 1876) was a French actor and playwright, one of the most famous players on the celebrated Boulevard du Crime. Biography Lemaître, the son of an architect, was ...
had done to melodrama in his version of ''L'Auberge des Adrets''. Though seen as somewhat old-fashioned during the 1860s, the genre saw a second surge in popularity from 1871 through the 1890s, in which ever more lavish versions of the genre's classics were mounted. In his 1885 dictionary of theatre arts,
Arthur Pougin Arthur Pougin ( 6 August 1834 – 8 August 1921) was a French musical and dramatic critic and writer. He was born at Châteauroux (Indre) and studied music at the Conservatoire de Paris under Alard (violin) and Reber (harmony). In 1855 he becam ...
noted that "audiences always show up in great numbers to any 'féerie''on offer, because they adore this truly magical entertainment", and praised the ''féerie'' as "surely a delightful entertainment when it is in the hands of a true poet. It freely enters the whimsy of his imagination and can both delight the viewer's mind and enchant their eyes." One of the poems in
Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...
's ''
Les Fleurs du mal ''Les Fleurs du mal'' (; ) is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. ''Les Fleurs du mal'' includes nearly all Baudelaire's poetry, written from 1840 until his death in August 1867. First published in 1857, it was important in the ...
'', "L'Irreparable," was inspired by a ''féerie'' he had seen, ''La Belle aux Cheveaux d'Or'', starring Marie Daubrun, an actress with whom he was smitten.
Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...
even wrote a full-length ''féerie'', '' Le Château des cœurs'', in 1863, though it was never performed.
Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
made his own contribution to the genre in 1881 with ''
Journey Through the Impossible ''Journey Through the Impossible'' () is an 1882 fantasy play written by Jules Verne, with the collaboration of Adolphe d'Ennery. A stage spectacular in the '' féerie'' tradition, the play follows the adventures of a young man who, with the ...
'', written in collaboration with Adolphe d'Ennery and featuring themes and characters from Verne's well-known novels.
Maurice Maeterlinck Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count/Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the 1911 Nobel Prize in ...
's 1908 play '' The Blue Bird'' was likewise described by contemporary observers as a ''féerie'', though critics noted that it was a more overtly poetic and intellectual example of the genre than the classic Châtelet productions.


Later years

From 1875's ''La Voyage dans la lune'' onward, some ''féerie''s began to show a trend for incorporating scientific and technological themes into their plots, a novelty due in part to the popularity and influence of Jules Verne's works. A related and very popular genre was also derived from Verne: the ''pièce de grand spectacle'', an extravagantly lavish production built on a colorful but not fantasy-based plot. The genre was launched with Verne and d'Ennery's smash-hit 1874 dramatization of ''
Around the World in Eighty Days ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' () is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, first published in French in 1872. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate ...
'', quickly followed by two further adaptations from the same team, '' The Children of Captain Grant'' and ''
Michael Strogoff ''Michael Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar'' () is a novel written by Jules Verne in 1876 in literature, 1876. Critic Leonard S. Davidow, considers it one of Verne's best books. Davidow wrote, "Jules Verne has written no better book than this, ...
''. The style of the ''pièce de grand spectacle'' was so close to the ''féerie'' that some critics found the terms interchangeable;
Alphonse Daudet Alphonse Daudet (; 13 May 184016 December 1897) was a French novelist. He was the husband of Julia Daudet and father of Edmée, Léon and Lucien Daudet. Early life Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the ' ...
called ''Around the World'' "the most sumptuous, the most original of all ''féeries''", while
Jules Claretie Jules is the French form of the Latin "Julius" (e.g. Jules César, the French name for Julius Caesar). In the anglosphere, it is also used for females although it is still a predominantly masculine name.One of the few notable examples of a femal ...
said he overheard a theatregoer describe the show as ''La Biche au bois'' "by locomotive". Eventually, ''Around the World'' and ''Michael Strogoff'', both immensely successful, codified the ''pièce de grand spectacle'' as a genre of its own, in competition with the similar but magic-based form of the "classical" ''féerie''. The ''féerie'' fell out of popularity by the end of the 19th century, by which time it was largely seen as entertainment for children. It disappeared from French stages just as another medium, the cinema, was beginning to supplant it as a form of storytelling spectacle.


Legacy

With his 1899 film version of ''
Cinderella "Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a Folklore, folk tale with thousands of variants that are told throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. The protagonist is a you ...
'',
Georges Méliès Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès ( , ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French magic (illusion), magician, toymaker, actor, and filmmaker. He led many technical and narrative developments in the early days of film, cinema, primarily in th ...
brought the ''féerie'' into the newly developing world of motion pictures. The ''féerie'' quickly became one of film's most popular and lavishly mounted genres in the early years of the twentieth century, with such pioneers as
Edwin S. Porter Edwin Stanton Porter (April 21, 1870 – April 30, 1941) was an American film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Famous Players Film Company. Of over ...
,
Cecil Hepworth Cecil Milton Hepworth (19 March 1874 – 9 February 1953) was a British film director, film producer, producer and screenwriter. He was among the founders of the Cinema of the United Kingdom, British film industry and continued making films ...
,
Ferdinand Zecca Ferdinand Zecca (19 February 1864 – 23 March 1947) was a pioneer French film director, film producer, actor and screenwriter. He worked primarily for the Pathé company, first in artistic endeavors then in administration of the internationall ...
, and
Albert Capellani Albert Capellani (23 August 1874 – 26 September 1931) was a French film director and screenwriter of the silent film, silent era. He directed films between 1905 and 1922. One of his brothers was the actor-sculptor Paul Capellani, and anoth ...
contributing fairy-tale adaptations in the ''féerie'' style or filming versions of popular stage féeries like ''Le Pied de mouton'', ''Les Sept Châteaux du diable'', and ''La Biche au bois''. The leader in the genre, however, remained Méliès, who designed many of his major films as ''féeries'' and whose work as a whole is intensely suffused with the genre's influence.
Jacques Demy Jacques Demy (; 5 June 1931 – 27 October 1990) was a French director, screenwriter and lyricist. He appeared at the height of the French New Wave alongside contemporaries like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut. Demy's films are celebrated ...
's 1970 film ''
Peau d'Âne ''Donkey Skin'' (; also known in English as ''Once Upon a Time'' and ''The Magic Donkey'') is a 1970 French musical fantasy romance comedy film directed by Jacques Demy, based on '' Donkeyskin'', a 1695 fairy tale by Charles Perrault about a kin ...
'' also shows a strong ''féerie'' influence, using elements of the ''féerie'' of the same name by Emile Vanderburch, Evrard Laurencin, and Charles Clairville. With its explorations into ways of integrating spectacle, comedy, and music in the theatre, the ''féerie'' also influenced the development of
burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.
and
musical comedy Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...
. In recollections of his career making films in the Méliès tradition, Ferdinand Zecca reflected on the genre's power: "It's not in the dramas and the acrobatic films that I put my greatest hope. It was in the féeries."


Notes


Footnotes


References


Sources

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Further reading

* Roxane Martin, ''La féerie romantique sur les scènes parisiennes (1791-1864)'', Honoré Champion, Paris, 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Feerie Theatrical genres Theatre of France